I'm very late but, I have finished MGSV! I don't really have much to add aside from saying I agree with many of the complaints I've seen around the Internet(specially the never ending side ops, good God I miss Peace Walker) but that I still enjoyed my time with the game, although it's certainly not one of the best in the series.

I was specially impressed by the

SPOILER: Show

Huey story line. Went from an okay comic relief character in Peace Walker to an horribly broken human being in V. What an evolution!

I put upwards of 150 hours into MGS5, beat every mission and Side Op, and I may even go back and try to S-rank all the missions. And yet every week or so, I still watch the E3 2014 "Nuclear" trailer and long for the game it seems to be promising, which is most certainly not the game I played.

It's hard to understand how a game can somehow be both really good and catastrophically disappointing, but trust Kojima to figure it out.

"I am shocked, SHOCKED, that a regular on an Evangelion forum would be a self-hating mess." - Tarnsman, paraphrased

"Jesus Christ, why are we even still talking about this shit?" - The Eva Monkey, summing up Evageeks in a sentence

gatotsu911 wrote:It's hard to understand how a game can somehow be both really good and catastrophically disappointing, but trust Kojima to figure it out.

It doesn't take a Kojima. This seems to be a common complaint with a lot of games, which is why I try not to pay attention to the marketing of any game I already know I'm gonna buy. (I say "try" because sometimes I fail spectacularly -- as has been the case so far with the FF7 remake.)

System Administrator"NGE is like a perfectly improvised jazz piece. It builds on a standard and then plays off it from there, and its developments may occasionally recall what it's done before as a way of keeping the whole concatenated." -- Eva Yojimbo"To me watching anime is not just for killing time or entertainment, it is a life style, and a healthy one too." -- symbv"That sounds like the kind of science that makes absolutely 0 sense when you stop and think about it... I LOVE IT." -- Rosenakahara

Even the gameplay had major flaws - the open world is conspicuously empty outside of the handful of outposts and lacks flavor and variety outside of its overall geography, the Side Ops are hugely repetitive padding, there was very clearly meant to be at least one more area in addition to Afghanistan and Angola-Zaire Border Region, there are virtually no boss fights despite that being a Metal Gear staple, enemy AI is unimpressive to say the least, and any semblance of balance or difficulty in the game disappears once you gain access to decent gear or just Quiet's upgraded weapons. And that's saying nothing of glaring missed opportunities like having multiple factions on the map at once as in MGS4, or missions where you can actually pilot one of the Metal Gears that the game spends so much time obsessing over, or the ability to actually go inside Mother Base.

It's still a really good game, because the core gameplay loop of open-ended infiltration is just so well-realized. But it's also so hugely flawed and incomplete in every respect. Again, it's a contradiction that could only arise from a developer as ambitious and experienced as Kojima biting off more than he could chew.

"I am shocked, SHOCKED, that a regular on an Evangelion forum would be a self-hating mess." - Tarnsman, paraphrased

"Jesus Christ, why are we even still talking about this shit?" - The Eva Monkey, summing up Evageeks in a sentence

Take the criticism in its context -- it only exists because the rest is so good that anywhere it falls short sticks out.

System Administrator"NGE is like a perfectly improvised jazz piece. It builds on a standard and then plays off it from there, and its developments may occasionally recall what it's done before as a way of keeping the whole concatenated." -- Eva Yojimbo"To me watching anime is not just for killing time or entertainment, it is a life style, and a healthy one too." -- symbv"That sounds like the kind of science that makes absolutely 0 sense when you stop and think about it... I LOVE IT." -- Rosenakahara

MGS V is one of my, hands down, favorite games. In spite of it's almost crippling story and characterization flaws, and the fact that you spend a lot of time in some of the most inactive warzones on record (who the hell are all these Rhodesians and Russians fighting, anyway?)...and that the resource management system is simultaneously engaging and infuriating in ways that make it broken...I love MGS V. I love it to pieces, which is one of the reasons why it drives me crazy that I feel like it was only the parts of a truly fantastic game.

Just pondering it, I could see the sinews (from previous MGS titles) of a game I would have liked to see, but did not get. So, I thought of what I would have wanted to see in MGS V.

Having a stagnant warzone is not in itself problematic: many hot wars are currently simmering right now in stabilized fronts or well-established DMZs. This was true for the bush wars and proxy wars of the Eighties. So, having that element is not a problem.

The problem is, there are no sides. There's just Big Boss, and everybody else. It does wonders for paranoia, but, considering the anti-war slant that Kojima clearly has, it would have benefited the game to have multiple sides. War is a gray and gray prospect much of the time, and the Eighties, being a clash between the ideals of capitalism and communism, were hardly a time of straight good guys and straight bad guys. The Mujaheddin we supported became the nascent core of the Taliban that we fought a fifteen year war against, the the African guerillas that we opposed, while often vicious and freely using child soldiers, were also fighting against the oppressive and racially restrictive regimes of apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia.

Allowing Big Boss to try and navigate this murky world as a true mercenary, bouncing back and forth between both the Soviets and the Americans, being a true proxy fighter, having a fundamental impact on the war, while trying to navigate back and forth across the lines...THAT would've been interesting.

Also frustrating was the distinct lack of civilians and population centers. They gave an in-story reason for why they weren't there, and removing the ability of the player to commit war-time atrocities is not a decision I oppose (I actually applaud Kojima for refusing to give in to a temptation a lot of other games freely allow). Still, having civilians caught in the crossfire, allowing Big Boss's actions to either save them, harm them, or simply leave them to fend for themselves...there's some moral ground to explore there that I think the FOX engine would have been good for exploring.

Small unit tactics would have been nice, too. Sure, you're a super soldier, but...you have an army. And there's a lot of space on your helicopter.

You can't drop in with a squad? Or buy some twin-rotor helicopters to deploy some jeeps? Imagine a little tactical or strategy side game inside of MGS.

My heart...she yearns....

Though, Gob still might look good in a cocktail dress.-Sorrow

Rei wanted to know what waffles tasted like.-Literary Eagle

We have to remember what's important in life: friends, waffles, and work. Or waffles, friends, and work. But work has to come in third.-Leslie Knope